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WWE Women's Tag Team Championship
The WWE Women's Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling women's tag team championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE for the Raw and SmackDown brands. The inaugural champions were Sasha Banks and Bayley. The championship was established on the December 24, 2018, episode of Monday Night Raw. It is distinct from the WWF Women's Tag Team Championship, as it does not carry the lineage of the former title, which was contested from 1983–1989. History In 2012, WWE.com ran an article supporting the resurrection of the Women's Tag Team Championship. Then in 2014, the Bella Twins discussed a desire to establish a Divas Tag Team Championship—during this time until 2016, female performers were referred to as Divas and their top championship was the WWE Divas Championship. The idea for a women's tag team championship was seemingly forgotten about until mid-2018; in an interview with Sky Sports, Stephanie McMahon stated that in regards to the titles debuting, "Not quite yet, but that's absolutely something we've heard loud and clear from our fan base and it's something we're keen on implementing as soon as we are able to." Prior to the WWE's first all-female pay-per-view Evolution in October, speculations—including comments from current female wrestlers—arose that the promotion would debut the titles at the event. Just prior to the event, Stephanie said that the titles would be coming "sooner than we think"; the titles, however, were not debuted at Evolution. Speculation died down after the event, however, on the December 3, 2018, episode of Monday Night Raw, when questioned by a fan about what they wanted to bring to the women's division in 2019, the team of Bayley and Sasha Banks stated that they wanted to become the inaugural WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. During the [[December 24, 2018 Monday Night RAW results|December 24, 2018 Raw]], WWE Chairman Vince McMahon officially announced that a new Women's Tag Team Championship would be introduced in 2019. On the January 14, 2019, episode of Raw, the championship belts were unveiled by Alexa Bliss on her segment, "A Moment of Bliss". After the unveiling, Bliss announced that the inaugural champions would be decided at Elimination Chamber on February 17, 2019, in a tag team Elimination Chamber match, featuring three teams from Raw and three teams from SmackDown, making the titles non-exclusive to either brand. To determine the three teams from Raw, qualification matches were held and began on the January 28 episode of Raw. The teams of Nia Jax and Tamina and The Riott Squad (represented by Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan) qualified by defeating the teams of Alexa Bliss and Mickie James, and Natalya and Dana Brooke, respectively. The following week, The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) defeated Alicia Fox and Nikki Cross to win Raw's final spot. No qualification matches were held to determine the three teams from SmackDown due to its smaller roster, and instead, each team declared their participation. The team of Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville announced theirs on the January 29 episode of SmackDown Live, The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) confirmed their entry via Twitter, and Carmella and Naomi accepted the final spot on the February 5 episode. The Boss 'n' Hug Connection would go on and win the match, lastly eliminating Rose and Deville by way of Banks submitting Deville, to become the inaugural champions. Entrants for inaugural championship match During the [[January 28, 2019 Monday Night RAW results|January 28, 2019, episode of Raw]], the teams of Nia Jax and Tamina and The Riott Squad's Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan qualified for the match by defeating the teams of Alexa Bliss and Mickie James, and Natalya and Dana Brooke, respectively. The following week, the team of Sasha Banks and Bayley won the final final spot from Raw by defeating the team of Alicia Fox and Nikki Cross. For SmackDown, the team of Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose declared their participation in the championship match on the [[January 29, 2019 Smackdown results|January 29 episode of SmackDown]], while The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) confirmed their entry via Twitter. Belt design The championship belts were unveiled by wrestler Alexa Bliss on the January 14, 2019 episode of Raw. The belt features three plates on a white leather strap, which is smaller than the men's. The three plates are outlined in gold while the inner portion is mostly silver. The WWE logo is affixed at the top of the circular center plate, which has four protruding edges. At the center, the word "Tag Team" is prominently written in gold. Above that is a gold banner that reads "Women's" while below is a gold banner that reads "Champions". Similar to how the men's Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships are Greek inspired, the center plate is encircled by a meander pattern. There is also margent ornamentation in the inner circle. In what has become a prominent feature with WWE's other championship belts, the two side plates feature a removable center section that can be customized with the champion's logos; the default side plates feature the WWE logo on a globe. Reigns As of , , overall there have been four reigns between four teams and eight individual champions. The inaugural championship team was the Raw brand's The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks). The IIconics have the longest reign at 120 days, while The Boss 'n' Hug Connection have the shortest reign at 49 days. Asuka is the oldest champion, winning the title at 38 years old, while Peyton Royce is the youngest, winning the title at 26. The current champions are The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) from Raw, who are in their first reign. They won the title by defeating former champions Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross at Hell in a Cell on October 6, 2019. Belt gallery WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.png|February 17, 2019 – Present External links * WWE Women's Tag Team Championship at CAGEMATCH.net Category:Tag team championships Category:World Wrestling Entertainment championships Category:Women's championships Category:Women's tag team championships